Paintings have evolved from the early cave man paintings found in various parts of the world to become some of the most revered and defined works of art today. Paintings are far and away the most widely exhibited form of art work in museums and galleries throughout the world.
Paint is essentially a viscous fluid that consists of a vehicle or binder, and a pigment. Optionally, the paint can include a solvent or thinner, a dryer, a biostat or biocide and an ultraviolet blocker or stabilizer. Paint can be applied as a fluid in thin coats or layers that dry to a solid. The drying phenomena is generally not reversible. That is, the dried paint cannot be transformed back into the viscous fluid state. The change to a solid, i.e., the drying phenomena, may occur by evaporation of the solvent, by chemical reaction or by a combination of both evaporation and chemical reaction.
There are two principal types of paint. One type of paint, commonly known as oil-based paint, uses an oil or oil-based vehicle to carry the pigment or coloring agent. Oil-based paints typically contain a dryer to accelerate the drying process. Such paints typically dry by oxidation and solidify by cross linking, which is a chemical reaction.
Another type of paint is a water-based, latex paint. Such paints use water as the fluid or liquid vehicle. Early water-based paints were water sensitive and thus had limited uses. Recent developments in water-based paints have resulted in paints having greater water resistance. The paint is applied as a fluid and the water evaporates (with possible further chemical change, i.e., oxidation or polymerization), leaving a film coating.
One modern form of painting uses the simulated movement of characters, environment, background and the like to produce visually pleasing effects. Such effects attempt to create the impression or appearance that objects within the painting appear suddenly before a viewer's eyes or move as the viewer's perception or lighting conditions change. One method of achieving the desired simulated motion is by using different types of media such as different types of paint. Mixing such media can be done with the use of ordinary paint in combination with light emitting luminescent or phosphorescent paint, in, for example, a layered application.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that oil-based and water-based latex paints have outstanding characteristics in that they provide a durable media, and offer a wide variety of colors, tones and textures. It has, however, been observed that layering water-based latex paint with oil-based paint, either of which have ultraviolet activated pigments, can result in cracking of the over-coat.
Further, when layering water-based latex paint with oil-based paint, it has been observed that the layers can bleed into each other or the visual images can blur. The consequences of such bleeding and blurring are that the sharpness of the image may be lost and thus the aesthetic value of the painting diminished. This is particularly true for paintings which include such luminescent pigments.
Accordingly, there continues to be a need for a painting and a method therefor which permits the use of layers of oil-based paints and water-based paints one on top of the other, which paints may include a transparent luminescent paint pigment. Such a painting will resist cracking and will provide sharp, visually and aesthetically pleasing images without blurring, fading or bleeding of the painted images.